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20 July 2012

Two Rules of Life as illustrated by WoW

I have found that there are a few other things in life that you can count on, aside from the whole death and taxes schtick. While these observations are not Gallilean in their breadth and scope, let alone impact, they are pretty damn true based upon my experiences.

Rule #1

This observation has evolved from my becoming a parent, and I have seen nothing in my personal life to disprove this observation.

The smaller the person, the more space they require.

Pretty simple statement, but consider this: a baby cannot simply get strapped in the minivan (oh yes, I am so cool that I drive a minivan) for a visit to the grandparents. You must load the spare diapers, creams, lotions, toys, changes of clothes for when the diapers fail to contain their intended product and portable bed. This is why parents drive those vans -- the kids take up all the room!

As my children have aged, the amount of crap they need with them has lessened. My son would be content wearing the same clothes all weekend long and would just lobby to carry his cell phone and his iPad. My daughters require their whole wardrobe along with the entire play room!

The warcraft equivalent? Well, I'm pretty sure this is just me, but I choose the tradeskilling combination of Engineering and Mining on my Gnome. Now this improved with Wrath's introduction of the Gnomish Army Knife, but when I first leveled engineering you had to have all this crap in your bags to make things -- Blacksmith Hammer, Arclight Spanner, Gyromatic Micro-Adjustor to name a few. Then, you had to make all these other parts just to assemble the thing you wanted to make in the first place. A toolbox - preferably the Elementium Toolbox - is pretty much mandatory!

Rule #2

I started realizing in staff meetings and client design sessions that:

The more ignorant someone is, the louder they complain.

At work, this was for a change request that would ultimately help someone save days of work during the week chasing down issues. Sometimes, I skate close to the Bobs from Office Space - I don't ever recommend staff reductions, but I do recommend working smarter. However, if an outsider tells you how to do your job, you may want to tell that outsider to piss off. I get that! Professionally, I'll explain to you and educate you on how this change will help you, so long as you give me a chance. Those folks that decline that chance fail to see the improvement and they sabotage the project every chance they get from that point forward.

Where do you see this in WoW? Too many places! How about an LFR where someone didn't get their drop (never mind they were an enhancement shaman rolling on spirit mail that the resto shammy won)? Or a BG where after the first death one of your teammates spends the entire remainder of the battle complaining in /bg about how everyone else sucks -- instead of suggesting tactic changes that may possibly allow your faction a victory. In each of these, someone feels slighted and/or attacked, they go on a rampage. Despite efforts of others in the group to explain why, they fail to listen to explanations and instead go on a nerd rage bender.

How about you folks (if you're out there)? Any rules of your life that crop up in your Warcraft experiences?

3 comments:

Very astute! This is very true. I hope for that day when the kids need less stuff! Oh and #2 is so true as well. Great post.

#3 When you try for something, it never happens. Things happen when you least expect it.

Like that rare you were camping. Or that mount you were farming. When you've reached the f this I can't be bothered anymore is when you'll get it. Like sea ponies, sea turtles, the mount from first boss in kara ...

So very true! I love this in terms of achievements. Some you are tracking because you have to work for them, Others are random surprises that just pop out of nowhere and they make me happy! Your follow up about the bbq going on sale also has wow implications -- a mini pet or a chant that you overpay for then gets listed for hundreds less the next day... ugh!Thanks for the feedback!